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Mary Wondrausch

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Mary Wondrausch OBE (17 December 1923 – 26 December 2016)[1] was an English artist, potter, historian and writer, born in Chelsea.[2] She trained as a potter at Farnham School of Art, latterly West Surrey College of Art and Design.

She was an honorary fellow of the Craft Potters Association and has work in the V&A Museum collection. She was awarded the OBE for services to the Arts in 2000.[3] Her primary interest is continental peasant art. Originally training as a watercolor artist, she later became interested in ceramics and opened her own pottery workshop in 1974. Inspired by 17th-century English slipware and Eastern European designs, such influences have informed her own work. She is known for lettering and exuberant use of colour. [citation needed]

Her Brickfields pottery is in Compton, near Guildford, Surrey,[4] where she moved in 1955 and subsequently raised three children.[5]

Portrait of Wondrausch

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Mary Wondrausch agreed to sit for Jon Edgar for a portrait work using clay quarried from the foundations of her house at Brickfields. This forms part of the Compton Triptych[6] unveiled at the Human Clay exhibition, University of Surrey in November 2011.

Wondrausch and her house in Surrey, including the artist's hand-stencilled walls, hand-painted furniture, and ceramics collection, were photographed by Liesa Siegelman for World of Interiors in May 1988[5] to accompany an autobiographic piece by Wandrausch. That article was reprinted by the magazine in 2018.

Works in public collections

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Dead Magpie (1956) mixed media on board. Collection of Surrey County Council[7]

Selected writings

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  • Mary Wondrausch on Slipware (1986; second edition 2001; publisher; A&C Black - 1st ed. ISBN 978-0-7136-2813-5. 2nd ed. ISBN 0-7136-2813-8)
  • Brickfields: My Life at Brickfields As a Potter, Painter, Gardener, Writer and Cook (2004; ISBN 0-9548237-0-2)
  • Hartley, Dorothy Rosaman (1893–1985) by Mary Wondrausch; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004

Contributions to symposia

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  • POTTED CHAR Mary Wondrausch (p. 227-234) SYMPOSIUM ON FOOD AND COOKERY 1994 PROCEEDINGS: Studies in Foods and Dishes at Risk. Edited by Harlan Walker; 245 pages.(Acanthus)
  • SPICE CONTAINERS AND SALT CONTAINERS Mary Wondrausch (p. 285-289) OXFORD SYMPOSIUM ON FOOD AND COOKERY 1992 PROCEEDINGS Studies of Flavourings - Ancient and Modern. Edited by Harlan Walker; 294 pages.(Acanthus)
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References

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  1. ^ MARY WONDRAUSCH OBE
  2. ^ Brickfields : My Life at Brickfields As a Potter, Painter, Gardener, Writer and Cook (2004)ISBN 0-9548237-0-2
  3. ^ OBE award in The Independent
  4. ^ Mary Wondrausch pottery Archived 2012-09-18 at archive.today
  5. ^ a b Wondrausch, Mary (October 2018). "Country Folk". World of Interiors: 316–323.
  6. ^ "THE HUMAN CLAY - University of Surrey - Guildford". www.surrey.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 10 December 2011.
  7. ^ Art UK image on BBC archive